Hidden music rituals around the world
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0:01 - 0:05Vincent Moon: How can we use computers,
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0:05 - 0:09cameras, microphones to represent the world
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0:09 - 0:11in an alternative way,
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0:11 - 0:13as much as possible?
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0:13 - 0:16How, maybe, is it possible to use the Internet
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0:16 - 0:20to create a new form of cinema?
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0:20 - 0:25And actually, why do we record?
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0:25 - 0:28Well, it is with such simple questions in mind
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0:28 - 0:32that I started to make films 10 years ago,
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0:32 - 0:35first with a friend, Christophe Abric.
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0:35 - 0:38He had a website, La Blogothèque,
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0:38 - 0:40dedicated to independent music.
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0:40 - 0:42We were crazy about music.
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0:42 - 0:45We wanted to represent
music in a different way, -
0:45 - 0:47to film the music we love,
the musicians we admired, -
0:47 - 0:51as much as possible, far
from the music industry -
0:51 - 0:53and far from the cliches attached to it.
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0:53 - 0:56We started to publish every week
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0:56 - 0:58sessions on the Internet.
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0:58 - 1:03We are going to see a few extracts now.
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1:06 - 1:10From Grizzly Bear in the shower
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1:10 - 1:15to Sigur Ros playing in a Parisian cafe.
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1:17 - 1:21From Phoenix playing by the Eiffel Tower
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1:21 - 1:25to Tom Jones in his
hotel room in New York. -
1:26 - 1:29From Arcade Fire in an elevator
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1:29 - 1:31in the Olympiades
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1:31 - 1:36to Beirut going down a
staircase in Brooklyn. -
1:36 - 1:40From R.E.M. in a car
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1:40 - 1:43to The National around a table at night
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1:43 - 1:47in the south of France.
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1:47 - 1:50From Bon Iver playing with some friends
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1:50 - 1:53in an apartment in Montmartre
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1:53 - 1:57to Yeasayer having a long night,
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1:57 - 2:00and many, many, many more
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2:00 - 2:02unknown or very famous bands.
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2:02 - 2:04We published all those films
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2:04 - 2:06for free on the Internet,
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2:06 - 2:09and we wanted to share
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2:09 - 2:11all those films and represent music
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2:11 - 2:14in a different way.
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2:14 - 2:17We wanted to create
another type of intimacy -
2:17 - 2:19using all those new technologies.
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2:19 - 2:22At the time, 10 years ago actually,
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2:22 - 2:24there was no such project on the Internet,
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2:24 - 2:28and I guess that's why the project we
were making, the Take Away Shows, -
2:28 - 2:29got quite successful,
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2:29 - 2:33reaching millions of viewers.
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2:33 - 2:36After a while, I got a bit —
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2:36 - 2:38I wanted to go somewhere else.
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2:38 - 2:41I felt the need to travel and
to discover some other music, -
2:41 - 2:43to explore the world,
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2:43 - 2:45going to other corners,
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2:45 - 2:47and actually it was also
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2:47 - 2:51this idea of nomadic cinema,
sort of, that I had in mind. -
2:51 - 2:58How could the use of new technologies
and the road fit together? -
2:58 - 2:59How could I edit my films in a bus
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2:59 - 3:01crossing the Andes?
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3:01 - 3:03So I went on five-year travels
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3:03 - 3:05around the globe.
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3:05 - 3:10I started at the time in the digital film
and music label collection Petites Planètes, -
3:10 - 3:14which was also an homage to
French filmmaker Chris Marker. -
3:14 - 3:16We're going to see now a few more extracts
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3:16 - 3:19of those new films.
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3:23 - 3:31From the tecno brega diva of
northern Brazil, Gaby Amarantos -
3:33 - 3:36to a female ensemble in Chechnya.
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3:39 - 3:44From experimental electronic music
in Singapore with One Man Nation -
3:46 - 3:52to Brazilian icon Tom Zé singing
on his rooftop in São Paolo. -
3:55 - 4:00From The Bambir, the great
rock band from Armenia -
4:00 - 4:02to some traditional songs
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4:02 - 4:06in a restaurant in Tbilisi, Georgia.
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4:08 - 4:14From White Shoes, a great retro
pop band from Jakarta, Indonesia -
4:15 - 4:21to DakhaBrakha, the revolutionary
band from Kiev, Ukraine. -
4:22 - 4:24From Tomi Lebrero
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4:24 - 4:28and his bandoneon and his friends
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, -
4:28 - 4:31to many other places
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4:31 - 4:33and musicians around the world.
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4:33 - 4:36My desire was to make it as a trek.
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4:36 - 4:38To do all those films,
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4:38 - 4:40it would have been impossible
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4:40 - 4:41with a big company behind me,
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4:41 - 4:43with a structure or anything.
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4:43 - 4:46I was traveling alone with a backpack —
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4:46 - 4:48computer, camera, microphones in it.
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4:48 - 4:51Alone, actually, but
just with local people, -
4:51 - 4:54meeting my team, which was absolutely not
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4:54 - 4:58professional people, on the spot there,
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4:58 - 5:00going from one place to another
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5:00 - 5:01and to make cinema as a trek.
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5:01 - 5:04I really believed that cinema could be
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5:04 - 5:07this very simple thing:
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5:07 - 5:11I want to make a film and you're going
to give me a place to stay for the night. -
5:11 - 5:16I give you a moment of cinema
and you offer me a capirinha. -
5:16 - 5:18Well, or other drinks,
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5:18 - 5:21depending on where you are.
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5:21 - 5:24In Peru, they drink pisco sour.
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5:24 - 5:29Well, when I arrived in Peru, actually,
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5:29 - 5:34I had no idea about what I would do there.
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5:34 - 5:42And I just had one phone number, actually,
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5:42 - 5:43of one person.
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5:43 - 5:44Three months later,
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5:44 - 5:49after traveling all around the
country, I had recorded 33 films, -
5:49 - 5:52only with the help of local people,
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5:52 - 5:54only with the help of people
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5:54 - 5:56that I was asking all the
time the same question: -
5:56 - 6:02What is important to record here today?
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6:02 - 6:03By living in such a way,
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6:03 - 6:06by working without any structure,
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6:06 - 6:11I was able to react to the moment
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6:11 - 6:15and to decide, oh, this is
important to make now. -
6:15 - 6:17This is important to
record that whole person. -
6:17 - 6:21This is important to create this exchange.
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6:21 - 6:24When I went to Chechnya,
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6:24 - 6:26the first person I met
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6:26 - 6:29looked at me and was like,
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6:29 - 6:31"What are you doing here?
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6:31 - 6:34Are you a journalist? NGO? Politics?
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6:34 - 6:37What kind of problems
are you going to study?" -
6:37 - 6:39Well, I was there to research
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6:39 - 6:42on Sufi rituals in Chechnya, actually —
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6:42 - 6:46incredible culture of Sufism in Chechnya,
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6:46 - 6:51which is absolutely unknown
outside of the region. -
6:51 - 6:53As soon as people understood
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6:53 - 6:55that I would give them those films —
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6:55 - 6:58I would publish them online for free
under a Creative Commons license, -
6:58 - 7:00but I would also really
give them to the people -
7:00 - 7:02and I would let them do
what they want with it. -
7:02 - 7:04I just want to represent
them in a beautiful light. -
7:04 - 7:06I just want to portray them in a way that
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7:06 - 7:10their grandchildren are going
to look at their grandfather, -
7:10 - 7:11and they're going to be like,
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7:11 - 7:16"Whoa, my grandfather is as
cool as Beyoncé." (Laughter) -
7:16 - 7:18It's a really important thing.
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7:18 - 7:22(Applause)
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7:22 - 7:23It's really important,
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7:23 - 7:25because that's the way
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7:25 - 7:28people are going to look differently at
their own culture, at their own land. -
7:28 - 7:31They're going to think about it differently.
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7:31 - 7:36It may be a way to maintain
a certain diversity. -
7:37 - 7:41Why you will record?
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7:41 - 7:43Hmm. There's a really good quote
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7:43 - 7:45by American thinker Hakim Bey
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7:45 - 7:48which says, "Every recording
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7:48 - 7:52is a tombstone of a live performance."
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7:52 - 7:55It's a really good
sentence to keep in mind -
7:55 - 7:59nowadays in an era saturated by images.
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7:59 - 8:00What's the point of that?
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8:00 - 8:03Where do we go with it?
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8:03 - 8:06I was researching. I was still
keeping this idea in mind: -
8:06 - 8:09What's the point?
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8:09 - 8:11I was researching on music, trying to pull,
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8:11 - 8:14trying to get closer to a certain origin of it.
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8:14 - 8:16Where is this all coming from?
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8:16 - 8:19I am French. I had no idea about
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8:19 - 8:21what I would discover,
which is a very simple thing: -
8:21 - 8:24Everything was sacred, at first,
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8:24 - 8:27and music was spiritual healing.
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8:29 - 8:33How could I use my camera,
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8:33 - 8:37my little tool, to get closer
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8:37 - 8:40and maybe not only capture the trance
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8:40 - 8:46but find an equivalent,
a cine-trance, maybe, -
8:46 - 8:48something in complete harmony
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8:48 - 8:51with the people?
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8:51 - 8:55That is now my new research I'm doing
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8:55 - 9:00on spirituality, on new
spirits around the world. -
9:00 - 9:03Maybe a few more extracts now.
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9:08 - 9:13From the Tana Toraja
funeral ritual in Indonesia -
9:17 - 9:21to an Easter ceremony
in the north of Ethiopia. -
9:24 - 9:26From jathilan, a popular trance ritual
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9:26 - 9:29on the island of Java,
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9:30 - 9:36to Umbanda in the north of Brazil.
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9:39 - 9:43The Sufi rituals of Chechnya
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9:45 - 9:51to a mass in the holiest
church of Armenia. -
9:55 - 9:57Some Sufi songs in Harar,
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9:57 - 10:00the holy city of Ethiopia,
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10:02 - 10:04to an ayahuasca ceremony
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10:04 - 10:08deep in the Amazon of
Peru with the Shipibo. -
10:12 - 10:14Then to my new project,
the one I'm doing now -
10:14 - 10:16here in Brazil, named "Híbridos."
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10:16 - 10:18I'm doing it with Priscilla Telmon.
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10:18 - 10:23It's research on the new
spiritualities all around the country. -
10:23 - 10:29This is my quest, my own little quest
of what I call experimental ethnography, -
10:29 - 10:37trying to hybrid all
those different genres, -
10:37 - 10:40trying to regain a certain complexity.
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10:41 - 10:44Why do we record?
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10:44 - 10:47I was still there.
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10:47 - 10:50I really believe cinema teaches us to see.
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10:50 - 10:52The way we show the world
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10:52 - 10:56is going to change the
way we see this world, -
10:56 - 10:58and we live in a moment where the mass media
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10:58 - 11:01are doing a terrible, terrible job
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11:01 - 11:03at representing the world:
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11:03 - 11:07violence, extremists,
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11:07 - 11:09only spectacular events,
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11:09 - 11:12only simplifications of everyday life.
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11:12 - 11:14I think we are recording
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11:14 - 11:17to regain a certain complexity.
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11:17 - 11:22To reinvent life today,
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11:22 - 11:26we have to make new forms of images.
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11:26 - 11:28And it's very simple.
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11:28 - 11:31Muito obrigado.
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11:31 - 11:35(Applause)
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11:42 - 11:45Bruno Giussani: Vincent, Vincent, Vincent.
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11:45 - 11:48Merci. We have to prepare for
the following performance, -
11:48 - 11:51and I have a question for you,
and the question is this: -
11:51 - 11:55You show up in places like the
ones you just have shown us, -
11:55 - 11:57and you are carrying a camera
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11:57 - 11:59and I assume that you are welcome
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11:59 - 12:02but you are not always absolutely welcome.
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12:02 - 12:05You walk into sacred rituals,
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12:05 - 12:08private moments in a village, a town,
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12:08 - 12:11a group of people.
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12:11 - 12:13How do you break the barrier
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12:13 - 12:15when you show up with a lens?
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12:18 - 12:21VM: I think you break it with your body,
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12:21 - 12:23more than with your knowledge.
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12:23 - 12:26That's what it taught me to travel,
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12:26 - 12:28to trust the memory of the body
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12:28 - 12:31more than the memory of the brain.
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12:31 - 12:33The respect is stepping forward,
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12:33 - 12:36not stepping backward, and I really think that
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12:36 - 12:39by engaging your body in the
moment, in the ceremony, -
12:39 - 12:42in the places, people welcome you
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12:42 - 12:43and understand your energy.
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12:43 - 12:45BG: You told me that most of the videos
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12:45 - 12:48you have made are
actually one single shot. -
12:48 - 12:49You don't do much editing.
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12:49 - 12:51I mean, you edited the ones for us
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12:51 - 12:53at the beginning of the sessions
because of the length, etc. -
12:53 - 12:55Otherwise, you just go in and capture
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12:55 - 12:57whatever happens in front of your eyes
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12:57 - 13:00without much planning, and so is that the case?
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13:00 - 13:02It's correct?
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13:02 - 13:04VM: My idea is that I think that
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13:04 - 13:08as long as we don't cut, in a way,
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13:08 - 13:11as long as we let the viewer watch,
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13:11 - 13:14more and more viewers
are going to feel closer, -
13:14 - 13:17are going to get closer to the moment,
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13:17 - 13:20to that moment and to that place.
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13:20 - 13:24I really think of that as a matter
of respecting the viewer, -
13:24 - 13:28to not cut all the time from one place to another,
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13:28 - 13:30to just let the time go.
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13:30 - 13:32BG: Tell me in a few words
about your new project, -
13:32 - 13:33"Híbridos," here in Brazil.
-
13:33 - 13:35Just before coming to
TEDGlobal, you have actually -
13:35 - 13:37been traveling around
the country for that. -
13:37 - 13:39Tell us a couple of things.
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13:39 - 13:41VM: "Híbridos" is —
I really believe Brazil, -
13:41 - 13:46far from the cliches, is the greatest
religious country in the world, -
13:46 - 13:49the greatest country
in terms of spirituality -
13:49 - 13:52and in experimentations in spiritualities.
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13:52 - 13:55And it's a big project I'm
doing over this year, -
13:55 - 13:59which is researching in very
different regions of Brazil, -
13:59 - 14:01in very different forms of cults,
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14:01 - 14:03and trying to understand
how people live together -
14:03 - 14:05with spirituality nowadays.
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14:05 - 14:08BG: The man who is going to
appear onstage momentarily, -
14:08 - 14:10and Vincent's going to introduce him,
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14:10 - 14:14is one of the subjects of
one of his past videos. -
14:14 - 14:16When did you do a video with him?
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14:16 - 14:18VM: I guess four years ago,
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14:18 - 14:21four years in my first travel.
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14:21 - 14:24BG: So it was one of
your first ones in Brazil. -
14:24 - 14:26VM: It was amongst the
first ones in Brazil, yeah. -
14:26 - 14:27I shot the film in Recife,
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14:27 - 14:29in the place where he is from.
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14:29 - 14:32BG: So let's introduce him.
Who are we waiting for? -
14:32 - 14:34VM: I'll just make it very short.
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14:34 - 14:36It's a very great honor for
me to welcome onstage -
14:36 - 14:39one of the greatest Brazilian
musicians of all time. -
14:39 - 14:42Please welcome Naná Vasconcelos.
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14:42 - 14:44BG: Naná Vasconcelos!
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14:44 - 14:48(Applause)
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14:51 - 14:57(Music)
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19:08 - 19:12Naná Vasconcelos: Let's go to the jungle.
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23:48 - 23:52(Applause)
- Title:
- Hidden music rituals around the world
- Speaker:
- Vincent Moon and Naná Vasconcelos
- Description:
-
French filmmaker Vincent Moon travels the world with just a backpack, a laptop and a camera. He’s filmed Arcade Fire in an elevator and Bon Iver in an apartment kitchen – and single-shot films of a Sufi ritual in Chechnya and an ayahuasca journey in Peru. In this talk, he explains how film and music can help people see their own cultures in a new way. Followed by a performance by jazz icon Naná Vasconcelos.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 24:13
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The world’s hidden music rituals |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was modified on 4/2/2015: at 01:28, "the Olympiades" was changed to "the Olympia."